Iran to Pipe Gas Through Iraq and Syria

The energy ministers of Iraq, Iran and Syria will sign a contract for transporting Iranian gas to the Middle East and Europe, an Iranian official said on Tuesday.

Javad Oji, Iran’s deputy oil minister, told the Iranian news agency Mehr that senior officials from the three countries met in Baghdad last week to discuss the new project.

The three sides have provisionally agreed that Iran should be able to transport its natural gas through Iraq and Syria in the first phase of a new pipeline that would then be extended to Lebanon and European countries.

Estimations are that the new pipeline will be operational by 2020 and will transfer some 10 to 20 million cubic meters of gas a day to Iraq, 15 to 20 million to Syria and 5 to 7 million to Lebanon, according to AKnews, while PressTV puts the figure at 110 million cubic meters.

The construction of the 5,600 kilometer (3,480 mile) pipeline is projected to cost $5-6 billion.